Internet Presence

You have completed your manuscript, and now you might be looking for and agent.

What will the agent see if they Google^TM  your name?

Do you have real followers on social media sites, do you have an author’s platform?

There are people on the Internet that sell Facebook^TM, Twitter^TM, and other sites. If an agent sees this, your reputation will suffer.

Building a list of subscribers to a blog, newsletter, followers on social media that you work for will tell agents that you have a list of potential readers and purchasers for your book.

If you choose to self-publish your book, having an Internet presence where you have kept your readers up to date on the progress of your book, and availability to purchase is what you need to sell your book to them.

There is no doubt that writing is a business, and more so for the self-published author, unless you have a reputation and following like James Patterson, who by the way, is on television hawking his books.

If you want to sell your books, you need and Internet presence and a platform from which people can purchase your book, or a link to a purchase site like Smashwords, Lulu, iUniversise, or whoever is publishing via POD, paperback, or eReader formats.

Having sold copies may also help you find an agent.

Today’s author needs to have a marketing plan, be willing to do book signings, promote, and schedule all of this on their own. Most self-publishing houses do not do this work for you, and many traditional publishing houses expect authors to do this work to sell their books.

What are you willing to do to create an Internet presence? 

Author

Robert Medak

Freelance Writer, Blogger, Editor, Proofreader, and Reviewer learning Marketing

Follow the author: http://xeeme.com/RobertMedak

Writers should be Lifelong Learners

Why should writers be lifelong learners?

First, writing is an ever-changing business. Yes, writing is a business just like any other business that requires flexibility in the businessperson to adapt to changes.

Many changes have occurred in publishing, and publishing changes almost daily. This requires you to keep up with these changes, even if you plan to self publish your book.

Publishing has changed so much that even household named authors are opting for self-publishing. Do think they do their homework with regard to the publishing business? More than likely, the answer is yes.

After working hard on your story, the last thing you need is, not having an author platform plus a marketing and promo plan. Guess what; even traditional publishing houses require a marketing and promo plan plus what you’re willing to do in marketing your book.

As part of your writing business, the time to begin marketing your book is before it’s completed. Companies offer preorders for upcoming products as part of their marketing. Your book is a coming attraction that needs marketing and promotion just like all upcoming items to build interest. If potential purchasers aren’t aware of your book, will they know you’re writing it, or when to begin looking for it online or bookstore shelves?

Second, without building a following, how will readers know about you? The Internet is today’s Yellow Pages. More people search online to find what they’re looking for.

Without a platform, how are readers to know you exist? You have to learn how to build and maintain your platform. For people to find your platform it must be dynamic, not static to achieve search engine ranking.

Writers, it’s up to you to learn what’s necessary to engage your readers, and build a following.

 Followers are your readers, and readers properly engaged are book buyers.

Continue to learn about your craft, publishing, and your business. 

About the author:

Robert Medak is a retired Communications Technician turned freelance writer, blogger, editor, proofreader, and reviewer learning marketing.

He was born in southern California, and lived in Kansas until moving to southern West Virginia with his wife and their cats and dogs. While in California, he and his wife Connie ran an animal rescue where Robert wrote job descriptions, flyers, and was treasurer.

How Many Hats Does a Writer Wear?

Let me say it is many more than just writer in today’s publishing culture.

Traditional publishers are no longer in the business of correcting multiple errors in manuscripts.

Acquisitions editors are looking for a minimum of errors and as close to print ready manuscripts for publication.

What does this mean for writers?

Writers will have to do much of what traditional publishers use to do. Writers will have to build a follow using social media, network marketing, blogging, creating video book trailers, and create a marketing plan at the minimum. Publishers will be requiring this and possibly even literary agents.

There are two ways for writers to accomplish this, DIY or outsourcing. Outsourcing is ideal if writers have the money. If a writer doesn’t have deep pockets, the only alternative is DIY.

Writers need a blog to garner interest in their book and build a following of interested potential purchasers. Writers will need a well-written proposal letter to get past the gatekeepers at traditional publishers, hence the growth of self-publishing and the bemoaning of the quality of self-published books..

There are many authors self-publishing that reading web sites and blogs lead to a backlash because of the quality of many books.

As a reviewer, I’ve seen this in many books for review. Writers need to find a professional editor for their work, and should never try to edit their own work. A professional editor looks at a piece of writing from a different perspective than he writer does from an objective point of view and distance from the work, while the writer is so close that they may miss simple errors.

Writers should make sure that their project is as print ready as possible before submitting it for publication. Writes also need to have marketing, PR, and promotion plans in place when submitting a manuscript to a traditional publisher.

Writers need to wear the hats of publicist, blogger, marketer, social media manager, book promoter, network marketer, web designer, retailer, bookkeeper, and shipper unless they have the capital to outsource these actions. To outsource this could run into thousands of dollars.

With work, writers can DIY. All it takes is some willingness to learn some simple techniques, writers don’t need to master these only have a good working knowledge of the techniques required.

Welcome to the fact that publishing has changed.

Freelance Writer/Blogger/Editor/Proofreader/Reviewer/Marketer

http://www.authorsden.com/robertmedak

http://rjmedak.wordpress.com

http://twitter.com/freelancewrtr

How to Promote Your Book

Image by brody4 via Flickr

Authors promoting their book

In today’s publishing environment it is up to the author to promote their book anyway they can. Unless your name is King, Bradbury, or someone as well known, the publishing houses are more likely to ask you about your marketing plan, and how many followers you have.

It’s up to authors

Do you self-publish, try to get an agent, use a publishing company such as Lulu, Book locker, Amazon or someone else? You will need to pound the pavement to get your book sold no matter how you get your book published.

How can authors promote their book?

There are many viral methods of promoting your book.

The time to begin promoting is before you publish the book.

You need to start building a following by creating a website, book trailer, using social media, virtual book tour, talking about the book to create a demand from followers.

Using social media to promote your book

By social media, I am not talking about Twitter and sites like that alone. Social media is anywhere the people congregate. Blogs, someone else’s blog, networking sites, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, building a website for the book, create a blog about the book, or add it to a list of books you have already published.

If this is your first book, you will have to work a little harder. You will have to work at creating a demand for your book sooner rather than later.

Obtaining a review

Once you publish your book, you will need to get reviews from reviewers. You can accomplish this by contacting reviewers, submitting your book to review sites via query, purchasing a promo package from companies, and through social media contacts who may know of reviewers.

How to approach a reviewer Do’s and Don’ts

• Do not send anything before you talk with them to get a feel for the reviewer and the genre they review. Most reviewers don’t review everything and every genre.
  

• Be professional.
  

• Never send any kind of PR. As a professional reviewer, I toss it out. Leave it up to the reviewer to write what is an unbiased review.
  

• Never take a review personal.
  

• Never contact the reviewer to ask how the review is progressing
  

• When contacting a review publication, query before sending a copy
  

Whenever you are promoting your book, always act like a consummate professional. An author is a businessperson, like it or not, writing is a business.

Robert Medak

Freelance Writer/Blogger/Editor/Reviewer

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2009 Muse Online Writers Conference

For the first time, I was a presenter at The Muse Online Writers Conference.

The conference is held in October. You must register for the conference to be able to attend. The conference is closed to registration for this year. You can however
register next year for the conference in October 2010 when registration is open. The cost is free.

I have attended The Muse conference for years, but this is my first time as a presenter. I may do it again next year. I presented a course, "So, you want to be a Freelance Writer", I also plan on visiting the accompanying forum to answer any questions I can about freelance writing.

Is Social Media Useful?

Can you find work as a freelance writer through social media sites? With sites like FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter and more, you can make contacts, but finding work still isn’t easy. Finding work depends on the individual writer, their education, their experience, and how proactive the person is.

Making contacts and being helpful whenever possible, is what anyone using social media needs to do. Social media also consists of blogs as well as sites like FaceBook and others. The blog is the best way for people to find you and learn something about you. This puts a person with the name. Your blog should contain the best writing and content you can do. If your blog is about a niche subject, make it entertaining and useful to whoever reads it.

Content is still king when creating posts to your blog. This will get you read. As people read and tell others, your traffic builds and you will have greater opportunities to find work.

Being proactive and asking people, or guest posting is one way to get known. Let’s face it, if no one knows you, they will not come to you. You need to make relevant posts to your subject, and to offer people something in return for reading your post(s).

At social media sites, you need to be interactive and helpful to others on the site. Post links to articles that are helpful, or to sites that are helpful. Retweet items that have relevance to others, include hashtags on Twitter to various groups that might be interested in a link to information you find, such as #writers, #editor, and more. Be a helpful member. You don’t need to hang out all day, but when you are at some social media site, be friendly and be a part of the community.

At any social media site, be sure to create a bio so people can read about you. Post a recent picture of yourself so that people can put a face to the name. People reading a post like to know that there is a real person posting to a blog, posting links, or information to a social media site.

Will all of this help you with your business or service? Maybe, it depends on what the other people at the site are looking for. Social media is another form of advertising.